Tuesday, 4 May 2010

StarCraft 2 gets release date

Blizzard have confirmed that StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty, the single most eagerly-awaited sequel in PC gaming history, will be released worldwide on 27 July 2010.

"I have returned."

Better start practising to resist those Zerg rushes and Protoss Carrier Swarms right now then. The standard edition will retail for $59.99 whilst the collector's edition will clock in at $99.99 and include a making-of, a soundtrack CD, a USB flashdisk with the original two games included and more. Prices in Europe and other territories will likely be standard. Two expansions, Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void, are planned for release following the initial game.

I don't think many people gave a crap about DNF (which was cancelled a year ago, so is no longer in the running) as a game, only about the insane length for it.

DN3D was a solid, fun shooter back in 1996, but not a gaming-epoch-defining success on the sheer scale of STARCRAFT. The only other sequel that really could compete for the title was HALF-LIFE 2, but the wait for SC2 has been more than twice as long.

I've been playing the Beta and it is quite good! For long-time players the learning curve will not be steep at all, though learning the units,buildings, proper build order, etc etc will take time - but that's why its fun!

What about Diablo 3? I've been waiting on that for years, been playing Titan Quest, Nox and now Torchlight int he meantime.

I lost interest with RTS games after the Total Annihilation, C&C Red Alert and Warcraft 2 days. Nothing could ever beat those 3 games in RTS awesomeness. Hell I still remember playing the original Dune and Dune 2 games!

I found DIABLO to be a mildly entertaining but ultimately far too repetitive action game. I like narrative in my RPGs and DIABLO was just an massive, mouse button-hammering dungeon crawl. Fun and diverting, but not something I could get too excited over.

"I lost interest with RTS games after the Total Annihilation, C&C Red Alert and Warcraft 2 days. Nothing could ever beat those 3 games in RTS awesomeness."

Those are some good games, but refusing to play any RTS games past 1997 is a bit silly. Arguably the very best RTS games ever made came after that point, such as GROUND CONTROL, HOSTILE WATERS, AGE OF EMPIRES, HOMEWORLD, COMPANY OF HEROES and of course STARCRAFT itself.

Adam - I guess it was just around that time that I lost interest in gaming in general so I never really experiences other RTS games after that. I think I did try Ground Control but got bored with it.

I game very rarely these days and although I agree that DIABLO and it's ilk really are just click fests, I only play games for single player purposes and to just zone out from the real world for a while without having to think too much about what I'm doing.

Anyway, not since the days of 4 day Civilization II and War of the Lance marathons have I truly been into PC gaming though I have dabbled here and there since. Maybe my interest waned with the rise of online multiplayer and console gaming, both of which I mostly dislike, I guess I just drifted.